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Build me to the Heavens and life never stops...
~ Ellen Rimbauer's ghost.
Help me, help Rose Red, help us build ...help us... or die...
~ Ellen Rimbauer's ghost.

Ellen Rimbauer is the titular villainous main protagonist of author Ridley Pearson's best selling novel titled The Diary of Ellen Rimbauer: My Life At Rose Red, published in 2001. Ellen then is transformed into the evil spirit and main antagonist in Stephen King's 2002 ABC made for TV miniseries sequel: Rose Red.

In the television film she was was portrayed by Julia Campbell, who also portrayed Christie Masters in Romy and Michelle's High School Reunion.

History[]

Ellen Rimbauer is a very tragic villain. She is transformed from a submissive women who just wanted to be loved and blessed with a beautiful family and home, into a possessed Zombie controlled by the dark forces inhabiting her environment. Ellen's story is a sad and frightening supernatural tale about love, hate and the unfairness many women of her time experienced as victims of sexual repression and Victorian morality. Ellen was a soul who had been very hurt in life and her story is also about how we can take the negative feelings we felt during our time on earth beyond the grave, and then some.

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The evil Ellen Rimbauer

The Diary of Ellen Rimbauer & Stephen King's Rose Red Miniseries[]

According to information revealed in the diary of Ellen Rimbauer's and at various points in the miniseries, the house which was eventually named "Rose Red" was built in 1906 by John Rimbauer for his significantly younger wife, Ellen. John Rimbauer owned an oil company, and used much of his wealth to build the vast mansion, which was an incredibly elaborate Tudor-Gothic style Victorian home which situated on 40 acres of woodland in the heart of Seattle, Washington, in the United States. The site was a Native American burial ground (a common motif in early works by author Stephen King). The house appeared cursed even as it was being constructed: Three construction workers were killed on the site, and a construction foreman was brutally murdered by a co-worker.

After the wedding, the Rimbauers took a grand, leisurely Honeymoon during the struture of the house which lasted an entire year. They circled the globe on some of the most luxurious first class trains and ocean liners like the Ocean Star. John Rimbauer's favorite part of the tour was Africa. Ellen didn't enjoy it quite as much. Infact she nearly died during the vacationing visit in Africa. Ellen fell very ill (from an unspecified sexually transmitted disease given to her by her husband), an unmentionable disease carried by men and suffered by women". Luckily, Ellen made the acquaintance of Sukeena, a local exotic tribeswoman who nursed Ellen back to health. Ellen and Sukeena became very close and formed a nearly unbreakable bond. As a result, Sukeena accompanied the Rimbauers back to the United States to work as a full time servant in the newly completed Rose Red mansion. The Rimbauers soon had two children, a boy named Adam because he was the first, and a girl named April who was born on April 1. (April was born with a deformed withered left arm). Ellen believed April's deformity was caused by the "African Fever" she experienced on her Honeymoon. Regardless, Ellen loved both her children dearly, but John only cared for his son Adam. As time went on Ellen quickly became unhappy with her marriage to her philandering and neglectful, cheating husband. In John's mind, Ellen had fulfilled her purpose by giving him a son, and was free to do whatever she pleased in Rose Red, such as spoiling herself with various luxuries such as buying fancy edwardian dresses and planting rose bushes on the property of her home. While John stayed busy with his oil business and was too occupied with his many extramarital secret affairs.

Tragic deaths and mysterious disappearances continued at the house from time to time. One of John Rimbauer's friends died of a bee sting in the solarium, and John Rimbauer's business partner (who was a Homosexual whom Rimbauer had cheated out of his hard earned share of their oil fortune) hung himself in front of Rimbauer's children as a sort of twisted revenge. Before he killed himself he tossed his cowboy hat to Adam and a red rose to April. Not much later the suicide causes April to stop speaking, apparently due to being traumatized. It is then when Ellen slowly realizes that something is seriously wrong with Rose Red. Soon after Adam was sent away to attend boarding school, leaving just before the evil of Rose Red truly awakened. However, Ellen's plans to successfully flee are haulted as one day, six-year-old April vanished into thin air and mysteriously disappeared while playing tea-time in the kitchen, never to be seen again. Sukeena, who was watching April during the time she went missing was convinced that the house was responsible. It is also hinted that Rose Red became jealous of April and Ellen's relationship because the house wanted Ellen all to itself and to show Ellen who was really in charge. With April lost somewhere deep inside the walls of the house, this guarantees that Ellen will never leave, not without her abducted child. Sukeena was used as the skapegoat even with Ellen's defense and she was blamed by John for the incident while viciously tortured by the local police after being suspected of having something to do with April's "murder". John Rimbauer (whom his wife suspected of adultery) committed suicide by throwing himself from a stain-glass window of one of the mansion's towers shortly thereafter (an event which the miniseries later shows to have been John's murder at the hands of Ellen Rimbauer and Sukeena who had found out about his affairs and just made it look like a suicide.)

As revealed in the miniseries, Ellen Rimbauer and Sukeena remained close and it is hinted their relationship may have been something more than just friends. Ellen reefers to Sukeena in her diary as "my friend", and then after Johns death she calls Sukeena her "Sister". And the two woman along with several maids continued to live in the house. After a spiritualist seance, Ellen believed that if she continued to build the house, forever extending its architecture, she would never die. Madame Stravinsky, the psychic who spoke to the house during the seance explained why men ended up dead and women missing. It was because the house could see into the souls of the people who entered and knew if they were good or bad. Rose Red could sense the power hungry evilness that lurked inside the men and how the women were merely victims of that evil. So taking these women to live here in spirit was the house's way of protecting them, and freeing them from the badness of the men around them. It all made so much sense! But Madame Stravinsky cautioned Ellen to not get too comfortable in the house because Rose Red was like a Vampire, also feeding off the evil souls of these men and could very well have it’s own bad intentions. It is also hinted that Mr. Rimbuear's own selfish and greedy passions were encouraging Rose Red's appetite. Thus concluding that Rose Red could be good and bad, as long as you kept the house happy. After speaking with the psychic, Ellen's life had changed forever, she never had another attack of her African fever which she suffered from time to time.

Ellen Rimbauer then used nearly all of her dead husband's immense fortune to continually add to the never-ending growth of the home over the next several decades, enlarging it significantly (in a plot element reminiscent of the real-life construction of the Winchester Mystery House). Ellen also clinged on to the hopes of believing that if she kept building the house, it would release her lost daughter April and give her back. Ellen even began to hear voices at night promising that if she built a tall tower in Rose Red that the house would reunite her with April again.

Yet mysterious disappearances continued: Rose Red mercilessly "swallowed" people up and refused to give them back. The heart of the house would feed off of its stolen victim and use their life force to become more and more powerful. After her husband's death, Ellen grew lonely and began throwing lavish parties and banquets at the mansion, inviting blue blooded aristocrats, rich socialites and popular celebrities and movie stars. A woman known as the glamorous Deanna Petrie, a beautiful and spunky actress and secret lover of Ellen Rimbauer's, went missing during one of these social events, thus sealing the reputation of Rose Red forever. Despite numerous searches, the only thing ever found of Deanna was her fancy earrings, and after Deanna's mysterious disappearance, no parties were ever thrown at Rose Red again. A few years later Sukeena went missing as well and only the maids who worked in the house and Ellen herself inhabited the property. Eventually Ellen disappeared in circa 1950, she was last seen slowly wandering the hallways of her mansion while on one of her daily strolls. Those who had seen her during this time said she looked dazed as if apparently just day-dreaming, lost in her own thoughts. After Ellen's disappearance Rose Red had enough power to began to grow on it's own, but very slowly so no one would really notice.

Several characters in the miniseries relate that, for several years after Ellen Rimbauer's disappearance, only servants occupied Rose Red. But since the Rimbauer fortune had long been spent, they no longer wanted to be there because they were not being paid to stay. Even the most loyal servants of Ellen were simply too scared of the house to live there, fearing they would disappear just like Sukeena did. So the servants eventually quit their jobs one by one and never returned. Adam Rimbauer, who inherited the house, lived there for a short time with his wife, but left after witnessing several paranormal events such as hearing voices and seeing the ghost of his long lost little sister April. Adam even witnessed many rooms significantly change their size or appearance and opened doors leading into parts of the house that did not match the layouts on the floor plans on Rose Red's blue prints. When Adam left, he allowed the house to be abandoned for a long time. Adam was one of the only ones who the house did not touch, probably because he never was close to his mother Ellen whom the house had become rather possessive over. However, after his death, his wife sold off many of the home's antique furnishings. She generated some income by permitting the fictional "Seattle Historical Society" to give tours of the house; these ceased in 1972 after a participant disappeared while on a tour of the mansion. The only thing ever found of this female victim was her purse, completely torn to bloody shreads. Even investigations of the grounds and structure were conducted in the 1960s and 1970s to seek an explanation for the strange sounds, lights, and other phenomena alleged to have occurred there and reported by neighbors of the area who lived near the mansion. But these ended with no satisfying answers and the house began to fall into disrepair and was left alone for decades, letting Rose Red "fall asleep", or so everyone believed.

All in all, the history of Rose Red counts up to 26 people who disappeared or died within it. Interestingly, the evil spirits only killed men, while women simply dissapeared and became part of the house. The evil spirits within the heart and very essence of Rose Red had grown found of Ellen Rimbuear because she knew how to make the house happy. In a strange way the spirit that possessed Rose Red had fallen in love with Ellen and that is why it eliminated or claimed anyone and everyone that was dear to Ellen because of its jealousy. Ellen's daughter April, Deanna the movie star, Sukeena etc, were all threats to the house, because Rose Red wanted Ellen to only love the house and no one else. In a twisted way, the house ate people out of love, before eventually consuming Ellen as well.

Gallery[]

           Kingster KingVillain

Novels/Novellas
Carrie: Carrie White | Mortimer Snerds (Chris Hargensen, Donna and Mary Lila Grace Thibodeau, Helen Shyres, Heather Shyres & Tina Blake) | Margaret White | Billy Nolan | Ralph White | Rachel Lang | New Bates Football Players (Mark Bing | Coach Walsh | Brad Winters | Eric Stark | Lou Stark | Tracy Campbell | Chuck Potter | Monica Jones | Jay)

Salem's Lot: Kurt Barlow | Richard Straker | Marsten House
The Shining: Overlook Hotel | Jack Torrance | Hotel Caretaker | Grady Sisters | Lorraine Massey
Children of the Corn: Children of the Corn (Isaac Chroner & Malachai Boardman) | He Who Walks Behind the Rows
Rage: Charlie Decker | Mr. Decker
The Stand: Randall Flagg | Barry Dorgan | Bobby Terry | Harold Lauder | Julie Lawry | Lloyd Henreid | Nadine Cross | The Kid | The Rat Man | Trashcan Man | Whitney Horgan
The Long Walk: The Major | Gary Barkovitch
The Dead Zone: Greg Stillson | Frank Dodd
The Mist: The Mist | Mrs. Carmody | Adrian Garff
Firestarter: Captain Hollister | Doctor Herman Pynchot | John Rainbird
Roadwork: Barton George Dawes | Sal Magliore
Cujo: Cujo | Joe Camber | Stephen Kemp
The Running Man: Damon Killian | United States of America
Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption: Samuel Norton | Byron Hadley | Sisters (Bogs Diamond) | Elmo Blatch
Apt Pupil: Kurt Dussander | Todd Bowden
The Body: The Cobras (John "Ace" Merrill, Richard "Eyeball" Chambers, Billy Tessio, Charlie Hogan, Vince Desjardins, Jack Mudgett & Norman "Fuzzy" Bracowicz)
Christine: Arnie Cunningham | Christine | Repperton Gang | Roland D. LeBay
Pet Sematary: Wendigo | Church | Gage Creed | Rachel Creed | Timmy Baterman
Cycle of the Werewolf: Lester Lowe
The Tailsman: Morgan Sloat
Thinner: Billy Halleck | Tadzu Lempke | Cary Rossington | Duncan Hopley | Gabe Romani | Gina Lempke | Richie Ginelli
Dolan's Cadillac: Jimmy Dolan
It: It/Pennywise | Leroy Hanlon | Bowers Gang (Belch Huggins, Henry Bowers, Marcia Fadden, Patrick Hockstetter, Peter Gordon & Vic Criss) | Alvin Marsh | Butch Bowers | Richard Macklin | Tom Rogan | Christopher Unwin | Webby Garton
Misery: Annie Wilkes
The Tommyknockers: Tommyknockers | Nancy Voss
The Dark Half: George Stark
Secret Window, Secret Garden: John Shooter
The Langoliers: Craig Toomey | Langoliers | Roger Toomey
Needful Things: Leland Gaunt | John "Ace" Merrill | Danforth Keeton III | Brian Rusk | Wilma Jerzyck | Nettie Cobb | Hugh Preist | Father Brigham (Father Meehan) | Reverend Rose
Gerald's Game: Gerald Burlingame | Moonlight Man | Tom Mahout
Dolores Claiborne: Joe St. George
Insomnia: Atropos | Crimson King
Rose Madder: Norman Daniels
The Green Mile: William Wharton | Percy Wetmore
Desperation: Tak | Sheriff Collie Entragian
The Regulators: Tak
Bag of Bones: Max Devore | Sara Tidwell | Roggete Whitmore
The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon: God of the Lost
Dreamcatcher: Byrus | Mr. Gray
Black House: Charles Burnside | The Crow Gorg | Mr. Munshun
From a Buick 8: The Buick
Cell: Phone Crazies | Raggedy Man
Lisey's Story: Andrew Landon | Jim Dooley | Long Boy
The Gingerbread Girl: Jim Pickering
Duma Key: Perse | Undead Victims
Under the Dome: Jim Rennie | Junior Rennie | Phil Bushey | Leatherheads
1922: Wilfred James | Henry James | Shannon Cotterie
Big Driver: Lester Norville | Ramona Norville
A Good Marriage: Robert Bob Anderson
11/22/63: Lee Harvey Oswald | Frank Dunning
In The Tall Grass: Ross Humboldt | Cal Demuth
Doctor Sleep: The True Knot (Rose the Hat, Crow Daddy, Grandpa Flick, Barry the Chink & Snakebite Andi) | Andy Hallorann
Bill Hodges Trilogy: Brady Hartsfield | Morris Bellamy
Gwendy's Button Box: Richard Farris
The Outsider: The Outsider
Fairy Tale: Gogmagog | Elden | Petra | Kellin | Hana | Red Molly | Peterkin | Christopher Polley

Short Stories
Cain Rose Up: Curt Garrish
The Mangler: Bill Gartley | The Mangler
The Boogeyman: The Boogeyman
Trucks: Westway Refrigerated Truck | Bulldozer
The Ledge: Cressner
Jerusalem's Lot: Philip Boone | James Boon | The Worm
Quitter's Inc.: Mr. Donatti | Quitters Inc.
The Crate: Crate Beast
Crouch End: The Children | The Goat with a Thousand Young
The Monkey: The Monkey
The Raft: Lake Blob
Word Processor of the Gods: Richard Hagstrom | Roger Hagstrom
Gramma: Gramma Bruckner
The Night Flier: Dwight Renfield
Low Men in Yellow Coats: Harry Doolin
Blind Willie: Raymond Fiegler
Why We're In Vietnam: Ronnie Malenfant
Lunch at the Gotham Café: Guy

Films
The Shining: Overlook Hotel (Lloyd, Lorraine Massey & Hotel Caretaker) | Jack Torrance
Creepshow: Creepshow Creep | Crate Beast | Nathan Grantham | Richard Vickers | Upson Pratt | Wilma Northrup
Cat's Eye: Cressner | Mr. Donatti | Quitters Inc. | Troll
Maximum Overdrive: Bubba Hendershot | Camp Loman | Happy Toyz Truck | Ice Cream Truck | M274 Mule | Vending Machine
A Return to Salem's Lot: Judge Axle
Creepshow 2: Creepshow Creep | Creepshow Bullies | Lake Blob | Sam Whitemoon | The HitchHiker
Sleepwalkers: Charles Brady | Mary Brady | Sleepwalkers
Pet Sematary 2: Gus Gilbert | Renee Hallow | Clyde Parker | Zowie
The Mangler Trilogy: Bill Gartley | The Mangler | Lin Sue | The Mangler Virus
The Rage: Carrie 2: Rachel Lang | Mark Bing
Creepshow 3: Creepshow Creep | Rachel
The Dark Tower: Randall Flagg
It: Part One: It/Pennywise | Bowers Gang (Henry Bowers, Vic Criss | Belch Huggins & Patrick Hockstetter)
Pet Sematary (2019): Ellie Creed
It: Part Two: It | Henry Bowers | Tom Rogan
Doctor Sleep: The True Knot (Rose the Hat, Crow Daddy, Grandpa Flick, Barry the Chink & Snakebite Andi) | Overlook Hotel (Jack Torrance, Hotel Caretaker & Lorraine Massey)
The Boogeyman: Boogeyman
Salem's Lot: Kurt Barlow (Richard Straker, Mike Ryerson & Danny Glick)

TV Series
The Stand: Randall Flagg | Harold Lauder | Julie Lawry | Nadine Cross | The Rat Woman | Trashcan Man
The Shining: Overlook Hotel | Jack Torrance | Hotel Caretaker | Lorraine Massey
Storm of the Century: André Linoge
Rose Red: Professor Joyce Reardon | Ellen Rimbauer
Under the Dome: Big Jim Rennie | Junior Rennie | Phil Bushey | The Kinship (Christine Price & Dawn Sinclair-Barbara)
The Outsider: The Outsider

Other
The Diary of Ellen Rimbauer: Ellen Rimbauer

See Also
The Dark Tower Villains

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